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I have just returned home to the UK after finding out late last year I was poz and had all my bloodwork done two days ago. I was so sure i had been infected around september or august last year, but my CD4 count came back at 89 , I just got the results over the phone and been told I need a confirmatory test on monday with a view of going onto meds. I'm in shock and don't know what to think. I won't be seeing the doctor till Monday so I wanted to know if anyone on here had an explanation of how this could possibly be? The doctor on the phone said it is possible I have been infected for many years but I had a negative test in 2009. I guess I will find out more on Monday I just don't quite know how to react to this news, is it possible I have rapid progression? Deeply deeply concerned

I have just returned home to the UK after finding out late last year I was poz and had all my bloodwork done two days ago. I was so sure i had been infected around september or august last year, but my CD4 count came back at 89 , I just got the results over the phone and been told I need a confirmatory test on monday with a view of going onto meds. I'm in shock and don't know what to think. I won't be seeing the doctor till Monday so I wanted to know if anyone on here had an explanation of how this could possibly be? The doctor on the phone said it is possible I have been infected for many years but I had a negative test in 2009. I guess I will find out more on Monday I just don't quite know how to react to this news, is it possible I have rapid progression? Deeply deeply concerned

Hey wanderer. I also found out last year. My CD4 was around 260 and I got really sick but bounced back and have been on medication for a year now and am doing fine.

Of course you can have a rapid progression. Follow your doctor's instructions properly, take your meds regularly and, while you are in this period, with a low CD4 count, try to take it easy, try to be healthy.

Sleep well, eat well and try to not to stress yourself too much. I'm sure youll be fine.

I had a similar experience. tested negative April 1996 and positive with 220 cd 4 in June 1997. Might have been false negative in '96 or recent acute infection in '97 , I gave up looking for a reason for this and started my medicine a week after diagnosis and since then I have been pretty well. Look forward to your doctor's appointment and medication.

Thank you, it is good to hear from someone else who has been in this situation and got though it. I think today has just been a huge shock and I am not really very well educated on rapid progression.My biggest worry since I heard the news I think has been that I have had this longer than I thought and it made me think of my loved ones who I may have infected without knowing. Alot of stuff in my head at the moment, thank you for your replies guys, it is really appreciated

Thank you, it is good to hear from someone else who has been in this situation and got though it. I think today has just been a huge shock and I am not really very well educated on rapid progression.My biggest worry since I heard the news I think has been that I have had this longer than I thought and it made me think of my loved ones who I may have infected without knowing. Alot of stuff in my head at the moment, thank you for your replies guys, it is really appreciated

Its ok to feel some guilt over it, I would too. But don't wallow in it.

Does the rapid fall of my CD4 count mean I could have a highly aggressive or resistant strain of the virus? I know only the doctor can tell me for sure, I am just wondering if anyone else experienced this?

No, rapid progression seems to have more to do with your own genetics than anything. I've heard some people say that their doctors told them they had an "aggressive strain", but the science doesn't really back that up.

The general rule of thumb is that it takes the average person around ten years of untreated hiv infection to progress to aids. Some people only take a year or two, and some people can go for years without a significant drop in their numbers.

I've been poz and untreated for fifteen years now, and my last three CD4 counts were 471 (24%), 340 (24%) and 491 (22%). I have never done anything special to achieve that - it's just my own genetic make-up. Other people who have the same virus as me (we got it from the same source) progressed much, much faster than me and are all on meds now and have been for years. I'm the only one who is still treatment naive out of seven people.

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

Thanks Ann, I'm really looking forward to just getting my resistance test results back and getting on meds. I feel alot calmer now than I did yesterday when I was really confused as to what was going on.

No, rapid progression seems to have more to do with your own genetics than anything. I've heard some people say that their doctors told them they had an "aggressive strain", but the science doesn't really back that up.

The general rule of thumb is that it takes the average person around ten years of untreated hiv infection to progress to aids. Some people only take a year or two, and some people can go for years without a significant drop in their numbers.

I've been poz and untreated for fifteen years now, and my last three CD4 counts were 471 (24%), 340 (24%) and 491 (22%). I have never done anything special to achieve that - it's just my own genetic make-up. Other people who have the same virus as me (we got it from the same source) progressed much, much faster than me and are all on meds now and have been for years. I'm the only one who is still treatment naive out of seven people.

Wow Ann, I guess I really got the short end of the stick...I'm still not sure but I think I was infected in 2010 and got sick with a CD4 count of 290 a year later. And my VL was around 20.000, which is not much at all.

I was dabbling in cocaine at the time so my doctor believes that's why the virus became "active" because, whenever I did coke I'd stay hours without eating and I couldn't sleep properly afterwards. Like my lifestyle kind of "opened a window" for the virus to act.

I still wonder if that was it. I've always been a healthy guy, never had any other STD before, not even herpes. Funny to think how a VL of 20.000 could make me so sick like I was. I didnt get to the point of being submitted to a hospital thank God but I lost weight, had a burning fever that would not go away, a nasty cough with blood and I had to take 2 antibiotics for a little over a month to recover.

Didn't mean to hijack the thread, I just read what you said above about the average of 10 years to develop AIDS and it made me think about my own situation.

Neg May 2011 - Poz May 2012,initial bloods landed me with a nice CD4 of 205. My low CD4 count was equally shocking as the poz test. "Luckily" I had a low VL and never felt sick before testing poz. Doing fine now.

The general rule of thumb is that it takes the average person around ten years of untreated hiv infection to progress to aids. Some people only take a year or two, and some people can go for years without a significant drop in their numbers.

this seems to be a good time to show "the chart".

this shows that in the initial infection there is a drop in cd4s and a rise in VL.Afterwards the cd4s pick up and the viral load drops back off.**This is followed by a period of time (1-10 yrs) in which the cd4s slowly decline and viral load slowly rises once again - until it reaches the aids condition and death. Of course, starting meds at the appropriate time stops HIV from reaching AIDS

** you might have actually been in this period of the infection when you started meds Rockin. Of course, since like nearly everyone else, you probably had never had your tcells tested before you were infected, there's no way to know what your "normal" baseline cd4 count was. if your cd4 count was normally on the lowish end, like 500, then you could have been in the period of infection with your cd4 climbing and viral load dropping.

Throughout the time a person is infected with HIV, it really takes looking at the trend over 3 tests or so to known exactly what is going on. Of course, whether early in the infection, late in the infection or a fast progressor, nearly everyone (except a very few special people) end up on meds. If by chance you weren't a fast progressor, Rockin, and just needed meds early, then take heart knowing you went with the hit early-hit hard approach. Either way it doesn't matter, as you would have gone onto meds eventually.